Sunday, December 26, 2010

Tron! (I fell asleep through part of it)

Tron! Tron on Christmas day after Chinese food and beer! Tron in 3D AND IMAX! Tron...is ever so slightly boring...but still worth seeing! Maybe just not in 3D and after too much food.

OK, before I start on about the movie, let's make a two cranky points about 3D and IMAX:

1. 3D is not comfortable when you already wear glasses. It's awkward and uncomfortable to wear two sets of glasses on top of each other. Are there clip on 3D frames for people who wear glasses? Like those clip on sunglasses.

2. IMAX is way too much when you are sitting in the second row. Never sit in the second row; if you are going to get stuck in the second row, just leave the movie. Craning my head and swinging it back and forth drove me nuts.

Alright, onto the movie!

Basically, Flinn has made this giant wiki he calls The Grid where everything is free and happy. Then Flinn goes missing and 20 years later, Flinn's son Sam (how many plucky young heros are named Sam? Why is it always Sam?) goes to the arcade, gets sucked into the grid, finds his dad, finds his dad's evil avatar, Clu, finds his slightly-addicted-to-liquid-liner half sister...future...girlfriend....program....thingie...we'll talk about that part later....helps everyone out, blows up The Grid (?), and then rides into the sunset. Let's talk!

So, I never ever like the whole Disney trope of orphanism. Why can't people be adventurous heros and have their parents? Or grandparents? Who the hell raised Sam? Seriously, we find out Flinn's wife died, then Flinn disappears, then Sam tells us his grandparents died. Who watched this kid? Did he raise himself? Is that why he lives in a garage at the banks of a river, which no heating or bathroom? Whatever.

OK, so Sam goes into The Grid, we see young Jeff Bridges/Clu as this evil overlord (he even does the overlord slouchy sitting thing), Sam sees this, too, and had to bust out in some SERIOUSLY SWEET LIGHT CYCLES! Holy shit! 3D rules! Light cycles rule! You sure as hell better enjoy that because they are so not going to be in the movie after this!

Finally, we get to The Dude. Wait, I mean old Jeff Bridges. Hold on, I mean Flinn. No, actually, I mean The Dude meets a Jedi costume. A glowing Jedi costume. I don't know, it's a zen thing. However, whenever they let Jeff Bridges be Jeff Bridges, the movie instantly gets +5 funnier and +5 watchable. If it was just Jeff Bridges, hanging out in his weird white cliff side apartment, eating suckling pig, saying 'man' and 'dude,' I still would have gone to watch it in 3D/IMAX. I love that stuff, man.

Um, OK, now we have to get to Quorra (who I thought was named Cara, but girl has to be special and special her name all wonky). So, she's Flinn's apprentice, who is also a program/magical ISO (some kind of super special program that "came into being" while Flinn was chillaxing in The Grid). Basically, she has been hanging out, learning from Flinn, being his adopted daughter, waiting to experience the user world. If you've seen the movie posters, you know she's the love interest of Sam's. Yes, and she's his half brother. Yes, it's gross and weird. Don't worry, everyone was slightly confused by that.

Oy.

Anyway, besides the weird Flowers in the Attic action, and the whole ambiguous ending of The Grid (it was blown up, right? Or what else happened there?), and Bradley randomly showing up at the end (I can't believe Sam left him there at the arcade! How is he going to get out of Detroit?!), it was a...good enough sequel. Listen, I'm not going to say that it was better than the first one, but it had what I wanted out of a Tron sequel. Action, The Dude, light cycles, and eyeliner abuse.